


trashbag

by 1248



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Childhood Memories, Gen, spoilers for episode 12 of the good place, spoilers for season 1 finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-23
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-07-15 19:39:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16069916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1248/pseuds/1248
Summary: Eleanor hadn’t liked the shape when he settled, and neither had Fala.-Michael found it downright unnerving, keeping his soul in a separate form. He still felt like himself, but the proof that a piece of him was missing sat right next to him, wearing a dog’s body.-When Chidi was growing up, his parents had been sure he would settle late.(Daemon au shorts, set during Chidi and Eleanor's childhoods, and early in season 1)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Short one-shot daemon au (I may add more as chapters or a series if I get around to writing more? I have everyone's daemons and named picked out)
> 
> end for notes on why i picked the daemon and the name and stuff
> 
> also this was not proof read. normally my partner does it for me but this is farther into the show than they've seen so whatever

It was after her fourteenth birthday, when her parents had finally signed the emancipation papers. All her stuff had already been packed, so all she had to do was hire a moving truck and walk with Fala to her new apartment.

 

The walk was too hot under the early afternoon sun and she kind of wanted to hate the moving guys for not letting her hitch a ride in the back of the truck, but she was too excited to get too angry at anyone. Fala was practically bouncing down the pavement, in the shape of a little lizard so the pavement didn’t burn his feet.

 

It had been a while since she had become too old to talk to her daemon in public, but the shared giddiness between them made her want to do it anyway.

 

“I bet the new place won’t smell like spilled beer.”

 

Her daemon glanced over at her, then flipped into the form of a slender brown snake, rapidly twining up her leg and then around her arm when she offered it to him.

 

“And Dad won’t be there to blast the TV while we’re trying to sleep,” he hissed happily into her ear.

 

“Or cuss out Mom on the phone,” she said, remembering the nights of shouting after the boyfriend-framing incident. That was right before she picked up her second after-school job, and then suddenly she didn’t have to worry about it, because she wasn’t at home anyway.

 

Fala had gone a little quiet with the reminder, working his way up to drape over her shoulders like a living scarf. After he got himself settled, she gently stroked a hand down his warm brown scales, and he sighed, pressing into the touch.

 

“After this, it’ll just be you and me,” he said, sounding a little sad about the idea.

 

Well, that was dumb.

 

Without warning, Eleanor shimmied her shoulders up and down and he hissed in offended surprise at the movement, slipping and starting to fall before she caught him in her arms. She snickered at the outraged air somehow conveyed by the expressionless features of a snake.

 

“Wake up, doofus, that’s what we want!  No more of the-” she alternated between imitating the tones of her dad and mom- “‘Eleanor, I need some money for a beer run’ or, ‘Eleanor, honey, I need you to help me pay my new boyfriend’s bail’ or, ‘Eleanor, can you drive a getaway car?’!”

 

A woman in a jogging suit was passing by as she said that last thing, and she and her daemon paused and both stared at Eleanor with wide eyes. Eleanor and Fala, the latter changing into the form of a raccoon with bared fangs, glared back until the woman looked away ashamedly and her sheep daemon bleated in quiet submission, then resumed walking.

 

“That was _ so  _ stupid,” Fala put in. He was probably talking both about her dad’s dumbass idea as well as the nosy bitch staring at them.

 

“Yes, it was,” she agreed, then added, “I wasn’t tall enough for the pedals yet, even!”

 

“Yeah, and then he was just like ‘we’ll pull the seat up for you’, like that was the  _ only issue _ with the whole thing!”

 

“Ugh, yes, but my point is that we’re way better off on our own. We’ve definitely done enough dumb shit for both of them to get even for them bringing me up, so we just have to leave before we get even more tangled up in all their bullshit,” Eleanor said, trying to sound serious and grown-up. 

 

It wasn’t the first time she had talked with Fala about this, but it suddenly felt so final. The papers were signed. The boxes were packed. She was officially moved into her own apartment, with her own money. She felt a feeling like joy expanding in her chest at the thought, but it was also slightly overwhelming.

 

Without thinking, she hugged Fala to her chest a little bit, enjoying his new soft coat of fur. He was almost too heavy to hold in raccoon form but at least he was easier to hug than a little snake.

 

He squirmed a bit to get comfortable, then pressed his pointed nose into the crook of her elbow. It was refreshingly cold and wet, compared to the stifling Phoenix heat she was experiencing everywhere else. 

 

Eleanor sighed, thinking about the rest of the walk ahead of them, then adjusted her arms to accommodate Fala as he shifted back and looked up at her with inky black animal eyes.

 

“Do you think they’ll miss us?” He was talking quietly enough that she could barely hear him, but she still looked around the sidewalk for listening passers-by.   
  
“Who?”   
  
“Y’know. Our parents,” Fala said, just as quietly as before. He really was a little too heavy to keep holding, but she wouldn’t be able to hear him now if she put him down.

 

“Man, who cares,” Eleanor said, automatically, then frowned at herself. If Fala asked, she could tell him what she thought.

 

“I don’t know, they’ll probably miss the way I usually had some money on me, or Dad’ll miss us keeping the house pretty clean,” she answered as honestly as she could, ignoring the unhappy tug she left in her chest as she said the words.

 

He didn’t answer, just let himself be held.

 

It was only a few more steps before she stopped, and leaned down and held him closer to the ground, saying “Hey, I know you’re kinda bummed out, but either get lighter or get walking.”

 

There was a moment when he tensed, and she started to lean up in preparation for a shift, but he stayed the same and she frowned at him.

 

“Fala? You walkin’?”

 

He suddenly leapt from her arms onto the sidewalk, but didn’t change forms mid-leap as he normally would. He turned around and pressed himself into her leg instead, staring up at her with dark, alarmed eyes. His delicate claws dug into her bare calf.

 

“Eleanor. Eleanor, I can’t change.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i picked the unusual name Fala in honor of the name of Eleanor Roosevelt's dog, who was nicknamed Fala. his original name was Big Boy (lol) and that was changed to the highly ridiculous Murray the Outlaw of Falahill, but he was called Fala.
> 
> the choice of the raccoon was picked due to the excellent potential of eleanor's daemon being a creature that traditionally symbolizes deceit and thievery. and that also picks through and steals trash. it would make sense for the companion of a trashbag to be an animal that loves garbage, right? : ) just one more thing to fuel her inferiority complex


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> still working on this ol chestnut . major spoilers for the season 1 finale here.

“Eleanor, I would like you to meet your soulmate!”

 

Michael finished ushering Chidi into the room and stepped back to let Chidi and Eleanor get acquainted, smiling encouragingly and waving his arms in invitation. 

 

Stepping back, he repressed the nervous urge to chew on his thumbnail. Beside him, his daemon flopped down on the hardwood floor and whined almost inaudibly, her ears pinned back.

 

This was one of the tougher parts. If Eleanor and Chidi immediately didn’t buy that they were soulmates for some stupid reason, he would have to act quickly to reassure them they were meant to be together. The humans doubting any piece of the Good Place lie at this part of the plan would be disastrous. 

 

Chidi introduced himself and his daemon, and Eleanor did in turn. She was being so polite, and it was kind of hilarious to watch her try to act like her idea of a good person. 

 

She invited him in for a hug, and Chidi accepted. Michael tried to keep his smile from turning into a smirk, and his daemon’s tail slowly started to swish back and forth along the floor. Bingo!

 

They had accepted the soulmate lie, and now he had to go before they asked any unnecessary questions about the process. The best lies didn’t include unnecessary details.

 

He shot off a quick excuse about letting them get acquainted and having other duties to attend to and tried to close the door quietly behind him after he shooed his daemon ahead.

 

“Hold on,” his other half muttered quietly, making him pause as he started down the sidewalk. 

 

She was stopped by the corner of the little house, staring intently through a window, her hunched shoulders reminding him of a predator on the hunt.

 

“Look in one more time, watch the daemons.”

 

He frowned at her but glanced back in. He hadn’t decided yet if it was convenient or not to exist while split into two forms. More eyes and ears between the two of them, yes, but having to communicate verbally with yourself was  _ such _ a pain.

 

Through the window he had put in to shine the morning sun in Eleanor’s face  _ just so _ , he could just barely catch sight of the raccoon and the squirrel. They sat beside their humans on the couch, but there was no polite half-cushion of distance between them, unlike their other halves.

 

Chidi’s squirrel was almost obscured by Eleanor’s raccoon, and the larger daemon’s head was bent, looking to be whispering to the other.

 

Michael frowned. What could Eleanor’s daemon possibly be saying that the woman herself couldn’t?   
  


“They weren’t supposed to get along so well, were they?” Michael’s daemon intoned quietly, her ears perked.

 

He glanced over at her, surprised. “You don’t think this means they’re hitting it off?”

 

She shook her shaggy head, but Michael could somehow feel that she was still concerned. It was downright unnerving, keeping the soul in a separate form. He still felt like  _ him _ , but the proof that a piece of him was missing sat right next to him, wearing a dog’s body. 

 

When he glanced back through the window, he saw Chidi’s daemon, and Chidi himself, recoil in surprise. Chidi’s little squirrel even ran up Chidi’s arm and perched on his shoulder, chittering.

 

Eleanor looked unimpressed, while her daemon rose to his hind legs and climbed into her lap. Even from this distance, the raccoon had noticeably puffed himself a size bigger and started twitching his tail with agitation. 

 

“There we go!” Michael couldn’t help but announce, feeling pleased and very slightly relieved. “She spooked Chidi! That’s the beginning of the end, knowing what a mess he is about… well, everything.”

 

“You have a point there,” his daemon conceded, standing up and pressing slightly into his side. He absentmindedly ran a hand across the dense, coarse fur on her back.

 

This experiment was such a risky gambit, and failure would certainly ruin his career before it had begun. But, watching Chidi and Eleanor enter a heated debate as their respective daemons became gradually more twitchy and anxious, he had to admit that it was worth it. 

 

He was going to change torment in the Bad Place forever, and he’d sacrifice anything to do it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> poor michael, all he wants to do is make people unhappy forever and things never go his way : (
> 
> jk but i did want to write a little from his perspective. l loved the little tidbits from his perspective so much i had to give it a shot
> 
> for the record, his daemon is an old english sheepdog. she doesn't have a name, because (iirc) michael is canonly only 'wearing' a human body, and i'm pretty sure most incorporeal beings wouldn't keep their souls on the outside. and i don't see why he would bother naming a part of himself. she's a sheepdog because his whole job is to guide and manipulate the humans! also because they're not especially aggressive and pretty smart. i always thought that 'servants having dog daemons' thing was bs but it would be a good part of his deception here.
> 
> chidi's daemon isn't introduced here since its mostly michael's point of view, but her name is chinonso (god is nearby) as a counterpoint to chidi (god exists). both very neat igbo names. she's a squirrel to represent chidi's kind of twitchy, indecisive manner. i'll probably cover it more later since chidi isn't a big player in this chapter
> 
> anyway, this isn't proofread so enjoy all the mistakes


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I felt bad about Chidi's lackluster role in the last chapter, and when I sat down to try to write his daemon settling, it wasn't nearly as tough as i thought!
> 
> This is set during Chidi's childhood. Unfortunately i don't think we know his birthday in canon so I kept it vague. hope you enjoy

When Chidi was growing up, his parents had been sure he would settle late.

 

It was the kind of fact that, as a little kid, he had just accepted as an intrinsic truth about himself. The sky was blue and Chidi Anagonye’s daemon would definitely late longer than normal to settle.

 

Of course, after a few years of school, and a few years longer of thinking about what kind of person he was, it became apparent that it was just a guess. His parents had decided that since Chidi wasn’t good at making decisions, it would naturally follow that his soul wouldn’t want to settle.

 

And it’s true. If it was up to Chidi what form Chinonso would take, and keep, for the rest of their life, he would be absolutely hard-pressed to pick something.

 

But that was where the flaw in that reasoning became apparent.

 

It  _ wasn’t _ up to him. It never had been. No person chose the shape of their soul.

 

Besides, it had been since Chidi was in grade school that everyone in his life knew him and his flaws very well. For someone who hated to pick and choose, he hadn’t changed much as a person.

 

So it was at his eleventh birthday, quite early by anyone’s estimation, that Chinonso found she couldn’t change forms anymore.

 

It had been for a few months that she favored the squirrel, after Chidi had been on the bus home after school, and seen a dead one lying by the side of the road.

 

It wasn’t the first time that he had seen roadkill, of course, but in the time the bus was at a stoplight, he had time to look more closely at it. The squirrel was fresh enough that birds hadn’t come to pick at it yet, and it looked almost like it was asleep.

 

But the long smear of dark brown on the road, and the dark discoloration of the fur around its neck told a different story. The last thing he saw before the bus moved on was the crust of bread that had somehow stayed lodged into the squirrel’s mouth, apparently staying there even through the impact of a fatal collision.

 

Something about that, maybe the idea that the squirrel had picked up something to eat later on, or perhaps to bring home to its offspring, was horrible to him. The thought of the little life that had been snuffed out suddenly seemed so cruel and thoughtless that he had started to cry, much to the confusion of the girl sitting next to him.

 

And while he cried for the squirrel and for the idea of a task left uncompleted, Chinonso had taken that form, small and brown with two white stripes down the length of her back. She had curled into the open palm of his hand, while his seatmate tapped his shoulder and tried to ask him what he was so upset about.

 

After that, for some reason or another, Chinonso liked the squirrel, even though it would sometimes make them sad with the memory.

 

For his eleventh birthday, he had been visiting his grandmother while his parents were on a work trip. As she always did when she knew Chidi was coming to stay with her, she had made mafe, his favorite food.

 

It had been a nice day, running errands with his grandmother and slowly working his way through her collection of books, some of which she had written herself.

 

He had found a book that upon closer examination was the second in a series. He could see the book that came before it resting high up on the top shelf of the bookcase. It was way too high for him to reach, so he picked up Chinonso from where she had been peering at the spines of books to look for his family name.

 

“I want that book, up there. It’s the one with the green lining, would you fly up and knock it down?”

 

She had glanced up and tilted her head, twisting back to watch him.

 

“You better catch me if I somehow fall.”

 

He had smiled and nodded and then frowned when a few seconds passed, and she remained small and furry in his hand.

 

“Chinonso?” he asked, feeling his heartbeat quicken.

 

“Chidi, I think I’ve settled,” she told him after a brief pause, grabbing her tail and examining it as if to see why it hadn’t become feathered.

 

“You- what? No, it’s too early.”

 

She twisted back and stared at him. Her almost-black dark eyes and smooth brown pelt looked suddenly new to him, as he realized he would be seeing them for the rest of his life.

 

“Do you think I don’t know that? Let’s tell grandmother,” she said, leaping nimbly onto the floor and scampering to the doorway.

 

“Chinonso,” Chidi said as he stumbled after her, feeling faint nausea develop in his stomach, “...are you absolutely sure? Are, are we sure?”

 

And his daemon paused and turned, running back to him and leaping up to his knee, then his shoulder, ignoring the hand he offered her.

 

“It doesn’t matter if we’re sure. This is us, right?” she told him, standing on her hind legs and staring right into his eyes when he turned to look at her.

 

Something about the words made him feel a pang of intense sadness, and Chinonso dropped back to all fours and swished her bottle-brush tail against his shoulder comfortingly as she felt it through their bond. But, despite how he felt about it, he knew she wasn’t wrong.

 

“No, you’re right,” he told her, offering her his hand again, which she now accepted.

 

He looked at her, curled up in his hand, and had a sudden image of his Chinonso, dead by the side of the road, with a package she’d never deliver.

 

He forcefully pushed the image out of his mind and tried to smile, because this was technically a happy time.

 

“Grandmother! You won’t believe what’s happened!” he called down the hall, waiting until he heard the sound of his grandmother leaving her chair where she'd been keeping an eye on the stew. 

 

When she came through the door, her goat daemon trotting at her side, he had his daemon in his hands, outstretched.

 

"We've settled!" he told her, just as he told himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So as previously established, I picked a squirrel for Chidi's daemon. I wanted something skittish and anxious, and i've always thought squirrels are terrible at making decisions at the worst of times. for example, when they're running across the street..... Alsoi wanted a cute daemon to suit a guy with a sweet personality.
> 
> my choice of chinonso was to complement chidi's name, and also to complete the joke. it's sort of funny that chidi's name (incorrectly, as far as i can tell according to canon) states 'god exists' and so i wanted her name to go one step further by incorrectly assuming 'god is nearby' (which, being in the Bad Place makes especially ironic)
> 
> also, Chinonso is an african ground squirrel! i wasn't super thorough on finding out if, while it is an african squirrel, does it actually live in senegal? so if that's incorrect, i may come back and edit it. again, this is not proof-read so enjoy

**Author's Note:**

> i picked the unusual name Fala in honor of the name of Eleanor Roosevelt's dog, who was nicknamed Fala. his original name was Big Boy (lol) and that was changed to the highly ridiculous Murray the Outlaw of Falahill, but he was called Fala.
> 
> the choice of the raccoon was picked due to the excellent potential of eleanor's daemon being a creature that traditionally symbolizes deceit and thievery. and that also picks through and steals trash. it would make sense for the companion of a trashbag to be an animal that loves garbage, right? : ) just one more thing to fuel her inferiority complex


End file.
